The modern world has grown a second brain and keeps it in your pocket. Our phones have so much of ourselves and our lives that the thought of losing it and starting a new one empty can be alarming. Optional, just a couple of clicks.
According to DeviceAtlas, you get a new phone on average between 18 months and 2 years. It will probably take us about 6 months to get our phone back where we like with our apps, contacts and settings.
Two phone changes and you’ve spent a year setting it up. Let’s see how we can cut this down to minutes. We are using a Samsung A5 phone today, but it is virtually indistinguishable from any Android phone.
Google phone backup
Make sure you are doing this over a Wi-Fi connection. Otherwise, it can use up a lot of your cellular data and possibly a lot of money.
You will also need a Google account and a Google Drive connection. If not, create a Google account now and continue.
Find and tap the settings icon.
On the settings screen, find and tap Google – Google settings.
In Google Settings, tap Backup.
On the backup screen, make sure your Google account is connected.
Now make sure the “Back up to Google Drive” button is enabled.
Finally, click the Back up now button. You will see a progress bar at the top of the screen.
There are no serious notifications that the backup has been completed. You will see that the “Back up now” button is no longer grayed out and the time of the last backup will be shown 0 minutes ago.
Recovering from Google Backup is usually only needed if your phone is wiped clean or you purchased a new phone.
- Sign in to your Google account on your phone.
- Google will automatically restore your contacts, calendar and other data.
- Open the Google application associated with the data you backed up and you will see how it starts to recover, or may have already been restored.
- Check your Google contacts, Google Photos, Google Drive and other Google apps to be sure.
Samsung phone backup
Samsung isn’t the only manufacturer of Android phones. However, according to AppBrain.com, Samsung holds about 45% of the smartphone market. So there is a 50/50 chance that your phone is a Samsung.
Again, make sure you do this over Wi-Fi to avoid cellular data charges, and you’ll need a Samsung account.
Find and tap the settings icon.
On the settings screen, find and tap Cloud & accounts.
On the Cloud & Accounts screen, tap Samsung Cloud.
Now scroll down to the backup and restore area on this screen. Tap Back up this phone.
You are on the data backup screen. Here you can choose what you want to reserve. Phone, Messages, Contacts, Calendar, Clock, Settings, Home Screen, Applications, Documents, Voice Recorder and Music are your options.
NOTE. Only what’s in the versions of these Samsung apps will be backed up. For example, backing up music means that only what is in the Samsung Music app will be backed up. It will not create backups on your Spotify.
Once you have made your choice, click on the BACKUP button at the bottom of the screen. It will turn into a STOP button. You will begin to see how the various options you selected are backed up, as well as the overall percentage of backups completed at the top of the screen. This will be displayed until complete. This may take several minutes.
After backing up your phone, you can restore it from your Samsung account by following these steps:
- Go to the backup and restore screen.
- Click “Recover Data” and you will be prompted to recover your device.
- Select the device you want to recover.
- Select the data you want to recover.
- Click the “Repair” button to complete the process.
All backup
That’s all it takes to secure your Android phone backups to Google or Samsung cloud services. If you have another brand of Android phone like LG, Huawei or whatever, they might also have a cloud service and backup process. Check your phone settings to see, or check the support pages of your phone manufacturer.
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